Featured Trump’s war on EVs is already off to a bad start

i suppose it will depend on the votes in congress. even some republicans in some states have heavy ev investment and employment.
trump might have more success if he can drill baby drill, and bring down gas prices, but that's not a given either.
in the end, it doesn't really matter. politicians say stuff to get elected. he'll be happy just to line his own pockets.

 

It's amazing how so much of the next four years going better than expected depends on extreme levels of incompetence from the people running the country and according to the lawyers planning to litigate against the executive orders they didn't disappoint and the legalese is super amateur and is going to be easier than they thought to shut down. Of course, we're still screwed in huge ways. But maybe this will finally wake up all the dummies and they'll be less hard to brainwash? Or one could only hope?

 

Darn:

• 2019 Model 3 - totally paid off, 150,000 miles
• 2017 BMW i3-REx - totally paid off, 75,000 miles
• 2025 Solar roof - 1/3d down, 2/3ds to go
• 1990 Home - totally paid off
  
  • hybrid hot water heater
  • hybrid clothes drier
  • high efficiency gas heat
  • automatic 16 kW emergency generator

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The only thing left is roof rain water catch for yard and gray water. Might add UV sanitizer for whole house use.

Bob Wilson

 

I hate politics. One guy at work was ranting and raving how awful EVs are because the company's Ford F 150 Lightning needed to be jump started because the 12V battery was dead, perhaps from leaving the lights on and/or the -31 °F temp that day.

I was thinking... "And 12V batteries never go dead and need jump starting on ICE vehicles?"

Come on everyone! EVs and ICEVs are vehicles each with their own pros and cons. Nothing is the absolute best nor the absolute worst.

 

I read that trump was sending out covert groups to drain ev 12 volts at night to make them look bad

 

i don't know if it's true. people are saying. it should be looked into.

 

Remember oil production under Biden increased to an all time high. The oil companies could have drilled even more but it has not been economical. If they drill more then prices won't really go down, they will just store or export. The biggest down pressure is plug-in vehicles o the price of oil, so yes trump can make oil companies more profitable by removing environmental regulations but they probably will just drill more in envirnomentally harmful ways not more wells.

Worldwide china is the biggest car market and they want evs. If US companies are going to be competitive in 10 years they need to invest in plug-ins. We are not going back to buggy whips. Trump can just remind a law that congress passed. He can make sure oil drilling and natural gas fracking are more environmentally damaging. Historically gas prices adjusted for inflation are at their average level in the last 20 years and far bellow their high.

 

delete

 

If true, its sort of sad that such an expensive car with all sorts of computers can't figure out how to shut off the lights after some time to save the 12v battery.

Mike

 

So what should the interval be? I stopped to help someone this week and my lights were my contribution for the effort. Should they be 5 minutes, 20 minutes, nnn minutes? How is it to know?

I think it is on the driver to turn off the lights and turn off the car. And I say this as someone who left the car running for an entire 9 inning baseball game and came back to the car in the dark to find the engine running and its headlight sensor had turned the headlights on. My bad, I don't blame the car.

 

Perhaps. But then again nobody knows why the 12V was dead. It's a company car, all employees can use it. Who knows if maybe one of the EV haters drained it on purpose. Or maybe Ford makes terrible EVs. But with weather getting well below -20 °F and down into the -30's °F for the past month I'm not sure if that's part of the problem, which most people in the world don't have to worry about.

As for lights that automatically go off, personally this is one thing I dislike about my Toyota Avalon. If I turn on the parking lights to be seen in an area that I'm parking, I want those lights to stay on until I either get back to the car or as long as possible. But instead they go off in something like 5 minutes, making the parking lights another completely useless feature that for decades on cars before had an actual purpose. I'm sick of automatic climate controls and automatic lights and useless fog lights.

 

Not really. My 2019 Tesla Model 3 still exceeds my requirements as :

• 1.5-3 hour driving segments - the distance between SuperChargers on a recent trip to New Orleans and Lake Charles area:
  • 
• Full Self Driving - since November, nothing else is even close and as I post, a new update:
  • 

My backup and city driver, 2017 BMW i3-REx

• 106 mi EV range (Std day) - fully meets driving errands around Huntsville and neighboring towns
  • Tuesday, 114 mi EV range in freezing weather around town.
• ~1 gal/year - due to maintenance cycle, 11-15 minutes, during the year
  • ran latest Tuesday, Jan 21, 2025

I've rethought getting a new Tesla Model 3. I have already customized the 2019 Model 3 and have significantly make it mine:

• Lighter wheels and tires - Tire Rack wheels and tires.
• Pizza pan wheel covers - done
• Replace front suspension linkages - already done with better than Tesla parts
  • Suspension parts are like tires, a wear item
• Added 2" receiver hitch - earliest addition, 3d party part I installed
• Anti-rock glass wrap - done and working (i.e., small pits after loud 'cracks')
• Cover glass roof with reflective wrap - have wrap, need warmer weather
  
• Convert passenger side to a 'sleeper' - planned, 4 seat, traveling car with RV park privileges

I can't buy a new Model 3 with these mods. The new ones look nice and have more range but their electric kWh is not enough to justify the cost. So I've sold my TSLA stock to buy a solar roof.

During the snow storm in New Orleans, we've finalized the design:

I will add an additional 400 W panel to achieve symmetry with the two, Southwest facing, main panels. The porch panels collect the earliest morning sun and latest evening sun. As you can tell from the tree shadow, I am now I'm looking to removed the remaining, 85 ft pine tree.

I've got my critter guards:

These will keep the birds from treating my solar panels as prime nesting sites.

With the new solar roof, I will switch to day time, EV charging. Soon as the array generates ~3 kW, it will automatically charge the plugged in car at 16 A or ~15 mile EV range per hour. For a 12 hour day, about 90 miles each day averaged between two cars. Car charging stops when the battery is full or midnight. Anything over or after that will go into the solar array battery for evening use. I still have a second EV charging outlet in case I want both cars fully grid charged.

My solar roof expected cost is ~$64,000 for ~6.4 kW peak power (i.e., 16 x 400 W) or about ~$10/W. I'm paying more than other solar systems for their expertise and licensed technicians. Mine will be code compliant and integrated with the automatic, natural gas fueled, 16 kW emergency generator. Projected savings are about $1,000/yr compared to TSLA dividends, $0/yr.

In the event of a power failure, the new breaker will within a second, turn off the EV charging, hot water tank, and cooking circuits. Then the solar battery will take over the load to the house. When the solar battery is drained, the 16 kW emergency generator will come on and sustain the house including the EV charging, hot water tank, and cooking circuits.

I am not seeking grid independence but sized to maximize savings from the $0.12/kW grid costs. So I have not bought extra panels to "sell back" kWh at $0.05/kW to the grid. They can buy their own solar panels.

Bob Wilson

 

+1

The interval shouldn't be time, but battery charge. Still my 2010 prius had a battery die fast (replaced under warranty) because something was wrong with it. Its the drivers job to shut off the lights or use auto shut off. A position to keep them on inspite can work too. GF had a dead battery because she left it in lights on instead of automatic.

As a side note, these $7500 tax credits far exceed what is needed. The real losers if they are recinded by congress (trump really can't legally do it) are ford and GM. The big tarrifs on Mexico and Canada will also hurt these automakers and some of the foreign ones with plants there. Tesla already has spent for the R&D, and will likely lose some sales but gain market share in the US. Tesla's real fear is trumps tarrifs on china and europe could cause retaliation against it, and its sales there may suffer.

 

What % of parts and raw materials come from 'to be tariffed' countries for a car made/assembled/designed in the US?

Is this anything but another benefit to the high earners? Tax break means you pay taxes. Which means you make a bit of coin. Which means you have taxes to be offset. (Said as I am doing mine!) Wait staff don't buy $50k Model Ys.

 

So a 64 year payback? How is that economic? Compare to $64k invested over the term of the payback. Altruistic, yes ... especially at your age.

Did you redo the roof first? Factor in at least one roof (shingles or ?) replacement and panel r/r while doing so?

 

That is certainly one way to look at it.
Another way is that you don't fund expensive, sometimes experimental technologies, that may need expensive repairs by helping people who can't afford a $500 repair (for example) invest in it.

(Numerous studies talk about how large percentages of the population can't afford an emergency $500 repair bill)

Mike

 

Cars with plenty of touch screen options could have a user setting such that you could manually override the automatic shutoff if needed.
But otherwise I'd go with something like 5 minutes of no activity, such as door opening or closing, a person sitting in a seat, etc. After that delay the car attempts to minimize 12v power usage, unless you have selected the one time manual override

Mike